Music
The use of music during a Holocaust Memorial Day commemoration can be an evocative tool to promote learning about the Holocaust and understanding of the contents of your event.
There are several ways of incorporating music into an event. These include live performances by a Klezmer band, a Gypsy band or a gay choir for example or performances by local music groups or choirs who have studied the Holocaust. A musical interlude during an event can provide a time for reflection, which may be particularly welcome if there has been a particularly moving or harrowing element to the commemoration.
Music by Jewish composers was banned by the Nazis and by using banned works such as those by Mahler, Mendelssohn or Meyerbeer; music by exiled Jewish composers including Hans Gal, Peter Gelhorn or Karl Rankl or works by those murdered during the Holocaust including Gideon Klein, Pavel Haas or Viktor Ullmann you will be contributing to the Legacy of Hope by helping to keep alive a cultural tradition which was attacked.
Jazz was seen as degenerate and lacking form. Jazz and Blues were also seen by the Nazis as associated with Black music and Black people were seen by the Nazis as racially inferior to the Aryans and including Jazz or Blues music from the 1930s and 40s may add a lighter note and will offer a recognition of other groups who faced Nazi persecution.
A large body of music was created in concentration camps and ghettos or as a response to the Holocaust and later genocides and use of this music is also suitable for use during HMD commemorations. This music includes Brundibar by Tony Kushner and work by Rwandan musician Jean Paul Samputu who lost members of his family in the genocide in 1994. Read more about Jean Paul Samputu.
Previous events have included new music created specifically for Holocaust Memorial Day – compositions have been sold in aid of local charities which help refugees from genocide. Composers can use the testimony of survivors or poetry as inspiration for new works.
The HMD education website contains a range of music lessons suitable for primary, secondary and post-16 students.
You can download a podcast of El Male Rachamim, a Jewish prayer of remembrance for victims of the Holocaust, which includes a haunting piece of shofar music.
